“What is so much worse than vigilante violence without accountability is systemic violence without accountability. The most prolific vigilante in the world, hell the most prolific serial killer in the world, could not kill as many people per day as the CEO of United Healthcare is responsible for.”

—trickster-archangel, posted to Tumblr

If he is who the police claim he is, and that really is his manifesto, then I hope he manages to bring a constant and unrelenting focus on the inhumanity of the US healthcare system, as he seems to desire.

As for what I think…

Yesterday I was reading through Means and Ends by Zoe Baker, which explores the history of Anarchist movements. There’s a chapter in there that goes over when Anarchists were all super into the idea of ‘Propaganda of the Deed’ back around the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. They went after everything from Industrialists to Kings, thinking it would get people all riled up and inspired to start a revolution… But the problem was, it didn’t.

In fact, the overall gist I’m getting from it is it was almost entirely counterproductive. It didn’t garner the sympathy of the general public, and worse, it gave ample justification for the authorities to militantly crack down on Anarchist groups and disband or imprison them, forcing them to go underground or to flee to less hostile countries, which weakened the movement overall.

The reaction in this particular instance does seem to be getting people angry about health insurance, but I don’t think humans are much different from how they were back in the 1800’s when similar things did not bring lasting or positive change, and unfortunately I don’t think this event will be any different.

i think killing people is bad, but i think overall his effect on society is positive. i dont think this means we should go out murdering other health CEOs, but i hope this brings other, less murderous, direct action techniques to light.

I did’t cry for the CEO, but also didn’t cheer for the assassin. I don’t know if he was the assassin. Cops seem to think so, but I can’t double-check.

If the assassin’s motive was revenge for someone’s misery or avoidable death, the motive is understandable. People sometimes make such decisions for similar reasons since time unknown.

If the assassin’s political complaint was that the US ranked fourty second in life expectancy among countries, despite ranking first in expense per capita - that is likely true, and should be a big deal as long as it remains so.

(Obviously, it won’t automatically improve from offing a health insurance CEO - many of them are indirectly responsible for many person-years of needless suffering or loss of lives, but there is a socio-economic framework which ensures that their positions get repopulated with their kind of people, so one getting killed can only highlight the problem.)

To any statist wanting to fix their state, I would recommend a tax-based a single-payer healthcare system in an eyeblink.

To other anarchists, I don’t think I’d have to explain the benefits of solidarity and collective bargaining. They’re obvious.

As for the US: not a chance within the next 4 years.

I haven’t heard a motive but I’m fine with what he did. You can’t chant “eat the rich” without expecting them to be offed. The insurance company’s policies lead to deaths just so their shareholders can add to their obscene wealth, fuck everything that lead to the current state of the world.